Rude Awakening

Yes, and if I had kept my Star Wars action figures mint on the card when I was a kid in the late 70's, a few of the early ones would be worth a lot of money.

I was a normal kid though, I opened and played with them.

(This is also why 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards are valuable.  As Lee p51 alludes to, the reason lots of stuff from those years was valuable later is because a lot didn't survive the years.  In today's world, there are way too many people stowing stuff away for a "rainy day" fund that will never materialize.)

-Dave

Rboater, I feel the pain, I bought a new power boat in the early 90's and I could have rented a boat every time I went out for a lot less than I lost on the one I bought, and that doesn't count the upkeep, storage, etc.  they are tough on the wallet.  One more comment on the trains.  I have been buying collections from people for more years than I can remember and every other person that calls me says something like (example only) I paid $21,000.00 for my collection, I have all the receipts and I'm willing to take a loss and let you have them for $20,000.00.  My reply is usually well, not $20,000 but maybe $9,000.  A week or two later after they realize there are no buyers out there for their collections they call back and ask if my offer is still good.  To sum it up, everyone posting here is right, these are not investments they are to be enjoyed even if that enjoyment is just looking at them once in awhile.  Open those boxes and take a peak, if you ever sell them you'll have to open them to let the buyer inspect them anyway.  It does hurt sometimes, I have plenty of them that were never opened and I just don't have the heart to open some of them but I'm trying.

Bum

Just rambling:

Without the collector, many of us operators would not have had many of the wonderful

things that we do enjoy. Since the collector and operator mutually helped each other

to enlarge the overall selection (production), I do appreciate it. I don't understand it,

but I do appreciate it. 

I imagine that the loss of many pure collectors of "new trains" has damaged the 

overall depth of the market. I kind of "collect" Williams brass from the 80's - early

2000's. It is certainly not because I intend to sell it. I'm affected very little by

the New/Mint/Boxed mentality, but I bought one of the Lionel ATSF 2-10-10-2's

back when they first came out, at a "good" (Oy!) price. Ran it once. Nice. I'd like to

weather it, but even I can't bring myself to do that. Yet. They actually go for more

than I paid, but I have no intention of selling, so why do I care...?

quote:

 Open those boxes and take a peak, if you ever sell them you'll have to open them to let the buyer inspect them anyway.  It does hurt sometimes, I have plenty of them that were never opened and I just don't have the heart to open some of them but I'm trying.

Of course they are your trains to do with as you please.

There still are people who will pay a premium to purchase an item in a sealed box. In my experience, when a sealed box item is sold, the risk is on the buyer. The item is sold sealed.

I have had the pleasure to break the factory seal on an item here and there. As a collector, sometimes its a tough choice.

The very LAST thing I think about is the value of the trains if I were to liquidate them. I bought them to enjoy them, NEVER AS AN INVESTMENT because they are NOT.

I purchased that same set and hated the paint job. Sold them at better than the eBay price however, but made zero dollars which was OK.

2 examples of what were truly collectibles several decades ago. I had put away in box far in my parents closet, sveral items from my childhood, long forgotten and found in the 80s. 1 was a Captain Video signature ring made from brass with the original thin top brass piece still attached, (original cost .15 cents and 2 Power House box tops) value in 1985 1200.00 and selling. 2nd item, a Space Patrol projection flashlight, shaped like a spceship with original filmstrip, (original cost .25 cent and a Ralston boxtop), value and selling in excess of 500.00.

Captain Video and Space Patrol stars were still alive, making fan tours and signing autographs. The stars have been gone for over a decade now, and hardly any interest. I've seen both items sell anywere from 39.00 to 45.00, if at all on E-Bay. The long ago fan clubs, and internet forums are long gone.

Our PS1, 2,3 and TMCC, etc. will long be upgraded with new type names and long forgotten hardware, making many useless except at expensive upgrades or conventional. They're toys, enjoy them for what they are. As to investments, talk to someone for the future, not items that can be lost, stolen, burned, and destroyed in the blink of an eye. I made mine in stocks, and land, and still own a farm which I lease and rent.

I should add, I was involved in putting on Sci-Fi fanfest, knew most the actors and actresses. Seen radio, cereal, and send-way premiuns dealers sell their wares out, and fans shelling big bucks during the fest. Checking out E-Bay and most don't sell anymore. Few know/knew who is Tom Mix, Little Orphan Annie, etc.

You and me both, Dave. I was 'the man' in middle school as I found the really tough to locate AT-AT (imperial walker) 'driver' figure: http://larepublica.pe/blogs/co...tesb_atat_driver.jpg

People who ask if I really had one, with the same reverence in their voice as one of us would likely today ask someone, "Wow, do you really have a full sized steam locomotive in your backyard?"

I don't reget opening them up and playing with them for a few reasons:

• My parents would have never bought another. I can hear it now, "No, you can't get that, you never even opened the last one we got for you!"
• I had a lot of fun with those things.

I don't have any of my old figures now, my only hope is that they mostly never made it to a landfill and maybe some collector enjoys at least a few of them now. Especially that AT-AT driver. Seriously, that was quite the coup for a kid to have scored one of those back then...

That was one 'collectible' I did make money one. I was working at a toy and hobby shop during much of the original Star Wars era. I bought 2 each of the toys......one for my kids....one to put away. When they got real valuable I sold them. On the about $500 collection I made $2500. But that wasn't planned....just a happy coincidence!!!

The biggest problem with my train collection will be how my family disposes of it when I am gone.

Valuable to me, worth whatever cash they can get of them to anyone else.

Yeah, they love me - but trains are for fun.

I'm thinking the actual figures that were hard to obtain may have been our perception or somewhat regional.

I know I had an AT-AT Driver, but I don't recall if he was really hard to come by.  The later ROTJ Rancor Keeper (and also the 1st Klaatu, I think) was the one I recall having to go to a bunch of stores to eventually find.  I got out towards the very end, best I can describe it is probably the series where they issued Ewoks #5 and #6 (Lumat and Paploo, if I recall) is probably where I am missing most figures.

Of the small set of SW toys I had as a kid, the Death Star (regular Kenner, not the rare Sears item) would probably be the most valuable.  Mine is not in perfect shape though, several of the struts that held the "floors" apart ended up broken over the years and probably were glued to retain functionality.  Other than that it's pretty good - have all the pieces, cardboard inserts, foam, Dianoga, etc, to the best of my knowledge.

To keep it train related, I saw a nifty SW train once at York.  I forget exactly what was on the cars, but someone put either some figures or Micromachines on flatcars and/or gondolas and it looked good to me.

-Dave

Most "normal" people would find that buying something sight unseen (usually for a large dollar amount) b/c you did NOT open a box to visually inspect its contents is one of the dumbest things a consumer can do. 

That's what you're doing when you're afraid to break the "magical" seal.  It's a fool's game, IMHO. How do you know what is in a box w/o first opening it, let alone the condition it's in?

As far as the Star Wars toys go, we should keep in mind that we loved them b/c we PLAYED with them.  We didn't have our friends over to look at unopened boxes.  The interactions we had with our childhood friends (and family) and the Star Wars toys are what make these pieces memorable to us. 

Then, when we got older, we asked our girlfriends/wives to wear the Princess Leia slave outfit for us....with mixed results.

When I sell new items that have not been opened I give the buyers a choice of returning it if not as described if I open it and inspect it or if they don't want me to open it no returns will be accepted.  I have sold several modern locomotives that the buyer would not allow me to open and inspect a couple of them on these forums.  I would assume that their feeling is if it's factory sealed whatever it states on the box should be in there.  If I had a cellophane machine I could make a fortune as I have a lot of old bricks out back but then I would have a lot of locomotives with no boxes.

Bum

My gut feeling this investment dream is caused by demographics.  The depression babies in 80s and 90s had a huge baby boomer market when they went to sell off all their trains. So values held or grew. Now the baby boomer market finds the younger generations have less space and less inclination at this point to begin collecting. And there are so many of the baby boomers to saturate the market. So there is a diminished market.

quote:

Most "normal" people would find that buying something sight unseen (usually for a large dollar amount) b/c you did NOT open a box to visually inspect its contents is one of the dumbest things a consumer can do. 

 

That's what you're doing when you're afraid to break the "magical" seal.  It's a fool's game, IMHO. How do you know what is in a box w/o first opening it, let alone the condition it's in

This poster is certainly entitled to his opinion.  Not even every collector would prize purchasing something in a sealed box for the very reasons described. I guess the collector who would must be abnormal.

OR, vintage Tupperware, vintage Griswold cast iron, original RevereWare(especially copper-clad), made in USA WearEver/Mirro and ECKO, etc. The kitchen stuff market is amazing. I can't afford to replace a lot of my kitchen utensils/pots/pans with used stuff, it would have to be new.

Funny, when I got out of the service in the beginning of 1976, I worked at a train store called trains and things off of rt 51 near Whitehall Pa. One day a fellow came in and was trying to sell several sets he had purchased from an estate collection. As many of the sets were unopened, he had as proof of contents, actual X-rays of the boxed sets! He was asking so much money the owner dismissed him and his proof and bade him a good day! I have not thought about that incident for quite some time, I wonder if he is still alive and if he still owns them unopened!

Oh, for the want of one of these...

quote:

 As many of the sets were unopened, he had as proof of contents, actual X-rays of the boxed sets! He was asking so much money the owner dismissed him and his proof and bade him a good day!

I see a fair number of Modern era sets in sealed boxes offered on Ebay. These are usually sets that came in cartons that were not shrink wrapped, but were sealed in some other way. Most of them do not sell for a significant premium, but I think they are an easier sell than an open box one.
I really was thinking along the lines of postwar when I wrote that sealed box items often command a premium.

So, how does a buyer know what he is getting?
I guess the buyer has to have confidence that the seller is a honest person, and has to examine the condition of the box.

The last sealed box item I purchased was a 1977 Service Station set (Budd cars). The box was crisp, and the set went for a low price.

To me trains are still one of the few hobbies that you could consider an investment as long as you are using the trains as a hobby. At least when the day comes that you are done with your trains most of them are still worth something, not what you spent on them but if you got your moneys worth of enjoyment out of them anything you sell them for is a gain IMO.

With many other hobbies you spend your money on the hobby, get your enjoyment out of it and are left with nothing at the end of the day. I use this argument with my wife and so far she goes with it so I am sticking with it. 

Early on I was in a position were I bought the early postwar trains. Parents would bring them to the shop because their children outgrew them. I sold everyone when the buying craze hit for a considerable profit. I used the funds to buy the trains that very few wanted, Std Gauge which I added to my own collection.

Today, a few of those early "investors" still have some of those very trains. They were left, "holding the bag" when the bottom fell out of the toy train market. I don't feel guilty at all. I still own all of my Std Gauge and a few early O-Gauge tinplate sets. I'm not able to run trains any longer. Yes, this hobby has been very good to me.

Agree.  I have a train inventory book that lists everything I own, with the price that I paid for each item, and the total cost of it all.   My wife and kids know where the book is if something happens to me.  I told them that they should expect 25 to 50 cents on the dollar, if they are lucky.  If anything came in a box, they know where they are.